Quiet small town living means I truly rely on the posts I see on facebook in my various "mom" groups to know what is taking place in and around the area. While there were a number of Halloween festivities taking place, I knew our little guy was probably not ready for them (even the pumpkin patch ride a couple weeks ago was too dusty and long). We did take him on a late night walk this past weekend, with my plan being the lit up Halloween decorations as the main attraction, but as it turned out, after we pointed out the creepy moon behind the clouds, that was all he pointed to and cared for the rest of the walk. I thought he might get scared of some of the decorations, but he just looked at them, pointed out the witches and pumpkins and that was the end of that. Move it along mom.

So it's been a while. I have stayed away both intentionally and unintentionally. I have had days where I wanted to sit and provide an update (even just so I had life documented), or share some yummy recipes, but then of course our little human needed my attention, and he wins, every time.

Andrew and I started talking seriously about when we should have kids in August of last year. At first we were honestly going to plan in such a way to guarantee a Capricorn baby. Why? Well for the obvious reason. We are Capricorns and we are awesome.

The biggest takeaway from our recent trip to California was that we needed to get beans back into our lives and we (I) needed to start experimenting with making my own Vegan Cheese. This was a direct result of a fantastic dining experience we had at Gracias Madres, a beyond delicious joint we ate at not once but twice (so typical of us). Located in the Mission District, we stuck to going there in the daylight hours, but it is conveniently located only two blocks from the BART and if you head towards 17th street there are tons of cute Hipster Shops/Eats (not so scary).

I kid you not, we legitimately hit up The Plant 5 times in the 4 days we were in San Francisco. Waste of a trip to spend it at the same joint? Maybe. But, how I see it is that I have every intention to be back in the Bay Area again, whether it is for vacation or to move, so I have time to try other spots. Can we help it that once we find a spot that caters to our lifestyle we go back repeatedly? I mean, we are pretty picky eaters, and with Andrew trying to avoid consuming cow dairy, the option narrow drastically. So, what did we eat? Oh let me tell you.

Two weeks ago I found out we were heading to San Francisco for our Anniversary. The very next day I started to google Vegan restaurants, figuring out their distance from the hotel and from various spots in the city we might find ourselves exploring.....

I wake up for probably the 5th time and reach over to look at the phone....6:45am. Too early! But,I am definitely not falling back asleep, so stealth mode I slide out of bed and slip out of the room. I wait for a second to listen for movement. Nothing. I creep down the stairs and head into my haven. Lights on and I grab my bowls, ingredients....

As a kid I dreamed about camping. I mean like the real camping. The kind that was written about in my childhood books that had the main characters out in the woods with campfires and lake games. The chicken that I am, the closest I got was the front yard of my "cabin" (quotations because it was really like a mini house you just called a cabin) in Tupper Lake. Food, a bathroom and anything I forgot to bring in the tent was just a hop and a skip away in Cabin 13. I was a chump.

Weekends free of multiple weddings and special events. This used to be unknown to me.

Immediately after college I started working as Function Manager for special events, and later that Fall I got offered a position as the Wedding Coordinator. As of this year, I have handed over the reigns to my co-worker and so I have enjoyed a Summer that includes weekends where I can relax and not worry about having to step away from whatever fun activity is taking place to go to work.

Last year, I along with Andrew and a couple of friends set out on our kayaks onto Lower Saranac Lake. That was probably the third time our kayaks touched water. Last week it was the fifth (yes, shake that head with disappoint). I got my brother to go back out with me to an island my friend christened as “Seuss Island”

I distinctly remember the first time I had hummus. I was relaxing poolside with two of my girlfriends (future bridesmaids) in Raleigh in 2011, when we realized we were hungry from all the strenuous activities we had been doing, you know flipping every 20 minutes for an even tan and cooling off in the pool.